Nassau County to close 4 police precincts

The Nassau Legislature voted 10-9 along party lines to reduce the number of police precincts in the county from eight to four.
Supporters of the plan, proposed as a cost-reduction measure by County Executive Ed Mangano, say it will save the county roughly $20 million, although opponents disagreed, saying the only thing it would cut is ...

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11 comments

As a former Nassau County resident, now living out of NY state, this news is very entertaining. NY has been going down the drain for a long time. Glad I don’t live there any longer. BTW: my taxes for the year on my condo where I now live will be $253.54 **FOR THE YEAR**. HA HA HA – enjoy your high taxes Nassau County residents! At least your cops live comfortably.

Please. All of you. I could care less about who is a democrat or republican. THey both have their agendas and we are stuck picking the lesser of the two evils. I noticed no one took note of the tax grievance issue Nassau County has I posted about. Fixing that you could cut taxes, keep the precincts open, leave everyone’s salary alone and possibly have a surplus that can be put back into the county infrastructure. Polara, why do you think when Nassau and Suffolk police put a test out tens of thousands of people take it and are willing to pay $100 to do so. While police may not have to go through years of training and get a Master’s degree (although I know more than a handful that do have Master’s, PhD’s and JD’s) I venture to say that not everyone has what it takes to make it through the Police academy or the investigation you undergo in order to become qualified for the job. I would say that entitles Police Officer to some typeof reward. And NYPD is not that far behind NCPD in the pay area. I know plenty of NYPD officers that make as much if not more that their NCPD counterparts. The Police department is a job that allows An officer to be able to raise a family and get by on Long Island without having to worry about taking on a second job. Most do work another job though because what they do make still doesn’t help with the costs of putting kids through college and housing costs these days. THere is no way of boosting your overtime the last three years of your career no matter what you hear or think you know. Overtime is either there or it’s not. The work rules are in place for officer safety and ensuring the precincts have adequate coverage to respond to calls on a daily basis. I guess we could get rid of those rules and then have something that resembles Suffolk’s sometimes extended response times. I have friends and have personally had experiences with suffolk where response times were into the hours time frame not minutes. Nassau is a service oriented police department. If you call because your water pipes are leaking, guess what, they are going to show up and help you get your problem fixed. Try getting that in NYC or Suffolk. All the stuff that the police department has no business responding to NCPD does as a service to the residents of the county. I don’t know if you’ve had to deal with police for anything outside of Nassau county. Nassau Police are hands down the most professional and courteous Officers around. You can complain about the salaries of the teachers and police but you should really be looking at where your politicians are blowing your money and hold them responsible. Once again I’ll point to the tax refund issue the county has. That’s easily the hundreds of millions in losses this county is suffering from. This plan will backfire on the county. The taxpayers will foot an even bigger bill for it and the county will be in an even worse place than it is now. I have been a member of the U.S. Navy, attached to the Marine Corps for a stretch and also the Army. If the issues the county executives office have allowed to come to this head were present in any of the branches I served in, heads would roll. And it wouldn’t be the little guy on the chopping block. I’m disgusted with the county’s inability to fix obvious problems. Salaries are not what brought about this disaster no matter how you frame it. Mismanagement and over zealous tax revenue expectations have brought Nassau county to it’s knees. And just as an aside, Obama was the worst thing that ever happened to this country. The decisions he’s made are on par with the politicians of Nassau county the past 20 years Democrat and Republican alike. We have yet to see the impact and ramifications of his years in office. That discussion is better left to another board and that’s all I’ll comment on that subject. Thomas Jefferson would have never stood for any of this.

“Sick of political bs”, why are you ranting against Obama, get yourself clued in buddy, as the article states the vote was STRICKLY along party lines. All the REPUBLICANS voted for closing the Police Precincts. The last time I checked Obama was a Democrat, and as a matter of fact he still is. The Extremist who have taken over the Republican Party are now able to execute their agenda(which they had hidden quite successfully for years) without any interference from within their own party. Maybe it’s time to open your eyes and see what the majority of truly ‘GREAT AMERICANS’ have known for years, that the Republican Party doesn’t care about the average middle class American but are only self-serving hypocrites.

This is poor management of this country that is the cause. The two biggest problems in the country are the pandering to illegals & entitlements to lazy people. We didn’t have these problems decades ago when it was “if you can’t pay, you must leave.” Amazing what forcing people to earn will do for the economy. Not once will these reporters, news agencies, etc. that bash the working person, report the costs of the illegals & those lazy Americans who have 6 kids, never a father, never a job, etc.

Sick of, I gather you’re a Nassau cop and, believe it or not, I agree w/ much of what you say. HOWEVER, even you must admit–if you’re objective enough about the subject–that whether or not one agrees w/ the very generous pay scale, the work rules and benefits imposed upon the County are onerous to say the least. Minimum staffing requirements, paid time off (a day for donating blood???)and “gaming” the system so that so much overtime is put in the last three years that pensions are dramatically increased to the point of absurdity. Oh and lets not forget–because you guys are supermen and never get sick–all the unused sick and vacation days you guys get to cash in when you retire. Please. Don’t play us for fools. Every profession has a “worth.” Doctors earn large salary due to all the expense and years it takes to get through college, medical school, residency, etc. What do Nassau/Suffolk cops require? A two year degree? Even the much maligned teaching profession requires a Masters plus additional hours, all at their own expense.

And while you’re all at it look at how the county refunds tax grievances. I’m pretty sure that’s more of a reason the county is bankrupt than civil service worker’s salaries. As an easy example for those of you who don’t know how it works…. say you pay $10000 in property taxes for the year, the county gets about $2000 of that the rest goes to school (in some cases around 70% of your taxes) municipalities, and the like. You grieve them and get let’s say a $5000 award, the county pays 100% of it!!!! It doesn’t get anything back from the other places your tax money goes. so in this example they give back 100% of what you paid them and an additional $3000!!!!! Try running a business like this. You wouldn’t make it a month. And this my friends and foes is the REAL reason for Nassau County’s financial woes. Why doesn’t someone run with this story? Why doesn’t the County Emperor and his clowns address this real and EXPENSIVE issue? Why? Because it doesn’t make for sensational headlines and it’s politically unpopular. Fix the real bleeding. Leave the working man alone!!!!

Here’s the reality. The workload for the upper management at the remaining precincts just went through the roof. There will still be the same amount of Officers on the road as we have been told the sectors will remain the same just reporting to the new 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Problem number 1 with that: these station houses are old, decrepit, buildings that can barely house the number of officers responding to them now with paperwork and criminals on a daily basis, number 2 parking at these precincts is already a joke and you can never find a spot. This should be interesting on the first busy day after the re-alignment. Number 3 the precincts will be so big that response times to a real emergency at a critical time (i.e. rush hour am or pm) will be so great that something bad will eventually happen. And this new commissioner who wants the NCPD to become NYPD east will burn the Officer who couldn’t do his job through no fault of his own. As for the vote to give him the power to discipline (read as fire because that’s what he can’t wait to do) without going to arbitration will further erode morale and have Officers walking on eggshells worrying about getting fired instead of worrying about doing their job and keeping the streets safe. Why would I go out and look to get involved in something (early signs of crime i.e. undesirables walking around in places where they shouldn’t be, going into areas known for drug and mischief, etc) if I have to look over my shoulder because some jackhole has a desire to fry guys at the drop of a hat to set an example that HE has arrived ” and things must change.” I’ll tell you what you can do with your change, you and Obama can go cram it in your kiester! There’s a reason Nassau county has a low crime rate. WHAT POLICE ARE ALREADY DOING THERE WORKS! Granted there have been spikes in certain crime but that is because since Mangano has taken control of the county he has systematically REDUCED the number of crime fighting units on the street. Where there were Police oriented policing (POP) units in all precincts, there are NONE in some of the precincts now as well as PEP units that have been disbanded that used to combat the drug problems in the areas that have become worse. These losses were not due to realignment of precincts. This has been going on since the beginning. As we can see it will only get worse.
As for the critics of how much the Officers get paid, Everyone has the opportunity to choose a job when you set out on your career path. You choose them because it’s what you love to do, it will make you money or the benefits will give your family a comfortable and safe life. Jealousy can be the only reason for complaining. I don’t think when you go into your office or out on your route or into your restaurant to work you have a daily and constant worry that someone may try to KILL you today or seriously injure you. Just look at the fine and outstanding Officers we have lost over the last year from all the different departments and agencies. You can’t put a price on that. ALL state workers are entitled to the same pension the police are. Because the Officers make more money they tend to be towards the top of the list with payment for pensions. Think about what they lay on the line everyday and then the salary might not seem so bad. You want to get mad at someone for salaries that are driving up your EVERYDAY cost of living? Aim your daggers at the executives on Wall Street, The executives of the insurance and energy companies, the executives at the banks. Those are LUDICROUS salaries and bonuses. And because they feel entitled to them you pay more for your life. More for insurance, more for gas, more fees at your bank, more for your food, more for your electric, more for EVERYTHING.
As we are on the subject of executives costing you more money, Nassau County Police Department has more Chiefs than the ENTIRE NYPD! Yes a department that has 2800+- officers has more than a department that has close to 30,000! Might that inflate the budget a bit? HMMMMM. We’ll let you think on that. Why hurt the little guy who has a small salary when you can implement real savings with a reverse seniority layoff and cut a serious chunk of budget with less damage to the department? One other question. Why would Mangano be doing a multi-million dollar project renovating the executive office building at 1 West St. when the county is in such a financial hole? Same reason Suozzi did the 65+ million renovation to the county executive’s building during his reign I suppose. Although it’s a fact that a family member of Suozzi’s got part of the contract on that one. Since Mangano laid off CSEA member’s last year why did he create a department with approx. 200 staff for a relative of D’Amato? I’m sure those people aren’t working for free. They pushed out county workers so patronage positions could be created. Mangano isn’t looking out for your safety, He isn’t looking out for your tax dollar. He’s looking out for himself and his political future. Don’t sit idly by why your County is dismantled and your taxes go through the roof. The tax man will be asking for more money sooner or later. The crisis isn’t going to fix itself with the Band-Aids Mangano is attempting to use.

This is the cops’ own faults. Spare me the drivel that they’ve already given back enough. They negotiated overly generous contracts w/ complicit politicians who were, in effect, bribing the cops for their votes. Even if you can stomach the idea of these guys “earning” $100K+/year, the onerous work rules they foisted on the county just add insult to injury. Yes, yes, I agree they’re brave, do a very infrequently difficult and sometimes dangerous job, etc., etc., but there isn’t a cop on this planet worth the amount of money these guys get in their TOTAL packages. Certainly, the NYC cops are VERY underpaid but Nassau/Suffolk cops? Please. Now that the die has been cast in Nassau County, who wants to bet the Suffolk doesn’t take the same tact w/ their overpaid force?

Well done. While Mr. Mangano’s other actions, like the Coliseum vote, were ill advised, this was a shrewd move to cut costs and finally break the back of the civil service mafia that has been allowed to bankrupt the County.

This was Nassau’s first major step to a sustainable model of governance.

Pretty courageous move. We have a long way to go, including new police contracts that will rid us of these overpaid oafs, and the State is finally moving on teacher pensions. DiNapoli needs to get out of the way.